It is commonly known among poultry farmers that to increase the growth of the birds and therefore the profits of the farmer, that the birds should eat as much as possible and as often as possible. It is also known that the more water the birds drink, the more they eat. Accordingly, there are many devices for continuously supplying drinking water to the birds. However, the devices for accomplishing this apparently simple task have not been overwhelmingly successful.
There are many factors which affect the consumption of drinking water in a poultry house and which affect the design of systems for providing drinking water. For example, the birds tend to drink more water if the height of the dispensers is properly adjusted in relation to the height of the birds. Another factor which affects the consumption is the temperature of the drinking water. If the water temperature is excessively high, the birds tend to drink less. There are additional factors, some of which will be discussed below in relation to the invention.
An example of a conventional apparatus for providing drinking water to poultry is a self-filling water pan. A self-filling water pan is approximately one to two feet in diameter, about three to five inches deep and suspended from the ceiling of the poultry house. In a typical installation, a poultry house would include a row of such pans extending the length of the house and spaced apart along the row at about six to twelve feet. The water is conducted along pipes in the overhead portions of the poultry house and is carried down to the pans by a hose. The hose is provided with a weight sensitive valve to provide water when the pan becomes light (from the water being consumed by the birds) and to stop the flow when the pan is full so as not to overflow onto the floor of the poultry house.
The self-filling water pan, however, suffers many drawbacks. In particular, the water supply being in the upper portion of the poultry house where the heat is trapped in the summertime causes the drinking water to sometimes get extremely warm. This is in spite of the fact that the water is typically supplied from an underground well at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Secondly, as it is desirable to adjust the height of the pans as the birds grow, each pan must be adjusted individually. This is a tedious and time consuming task, particularly in view of the number of pans in a typical poultry house. A further drawback of the self-filling pans is that the standing water therein is conducive to the growth of germs, bacteria and other undesirable elements. Moreover, once the germs and bacteria are established in the pans, the pans provide an excellent means for communicating the germs and bacteria to all the birds in the flock. While it is conventional to clean and disinfect the watering apparatus between broods, while performing other poultry house maintenance, it is impractical to clean the pans during the raising of a brood except in the most extreme circumstances.
Other devices for providing drinking water to poultry are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,771,058 issued Nov. 20, 1956 to Howard and U.S. Pat. No. 3,122,131 issued Feb. 25, 1964 to Warren. These devices comprise a trough with one end having an enlarged portion with a float valve therein to regulate the water level. These devices are generally similar to the self-filling pans discussed above and therefore suffer similar drawbacks.
One proposed improvement over the pan type water system is a nipple type pressurized system which includes a generally horizontal pipe suspended from the upper portion of the poultry house with a number of nipple valves dependingly arranged at spaced locations along the lower portion of the pipe. An example of such a device is U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,797 issued Feb. 16, 1988 to Steudler. This type of device, while avoiding the standing water drawback above, suffers an additional drawback in that the valves tend to become easily clogged by impurities in the water causing expensive maintenance and reliability problems. The problems are particularly troublesome for turkey watering systems because turkeys receive many different types of treatments through the watering apparatus whereas chickens would get similar treatments mixed with the dry feed.
In another pressurized system, water is carried by a conduit having a number of upstanding cups thereon. A valve is provided between the cup and the conduit with an upstanding valve trigger. The birds activate the valve trigger so that the valve opens to allow the pressurized water to evacuate debris and sediment from the cups while filling the cups with fresh water. However, as with the nipple valve system described above, the valves are very small and tend to get clogged with minerals and impurities in the water over an extended period of time. Thus, the system will suffer substantial reliability and maintenance costs. Also, as with the nipple systems, the problem is significantly worse for turkey farmers which provide medicine and nutrients through the watering system. Accordingly, turkey farmers have avoided using this type of watering system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing water to poultry which avoids the above noted limitations and disadvantages of the prior art.
It is a particular object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing water to poultry in a simple and reliable manner.
It is a more particular object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing water to a poultry house for poultry utilizing gravity feed to supply water to a plurality of water cups which are suspendingly supported above the floor of the poultry house and wherein the cups may be easily raised to a suitable height above the floor to accommodate the birds as they grow.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing water to poultry wherein water in the system is replaced when it is above a predetermined temperature.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for supplying drinking water to poultry wherein the distribution system is periodically purged and cleansed so as to reduce the exposure of the poultry to potentially harmful bacteria and germs.